The requirements of increasing functionality, shrinking physical size and reducing overall system cost can place system constraints on consumer electronics devices. Flash memory has been used to make storage portable among consumer devices such as car navigation systems, smart phones, digital cameras, PDAs, and MP3 players, and countless other portable applications. New non-volatile technologies that supplement flash memory are being planned for an increasing number of functions in digital consumer devices. These new non-volatile memories provide “managed memory” capabilities that allow system designers to re-evaluate the memory subsystems and look for improvements in these devices.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.